Methods, systems and apparatuses for the formation and tracking of location sharing groups

ABSTRACT

An embodiment of the present invention is directed to methods, systems and apparatuses enabling location sharing group formation and the tracking of group members. Groups may be bound by a geographical area that circumscribes the boundary of a location sharing group. Active members of a location sharing group may become active based on their relative location to the geographical area defining the location sharing group. The geographical area may be static, mobile or change size and shape based on parameters forming the location sharing group. Alerts may be generated informing members of the location sharing group of the entry or exit of members from the location sharing group. Active members of a location sharing group may share location information with other members of the location sharing group. A radius or other shape may identify a geographical area for location sharing between members.

CLAIM OF PRIORITY

This application is a continuation application of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/754,093, filed Jan. 30, 2013, which itself is acontinuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/188,414,filed Jul. 21, 2011, which itself is a divisional of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/075,408, filed Mar. 11, 2008 entitled “METHODSAND APPARATUSES FOR TRANSMISSION OF AN ALERT TO MULTIPLE DEVICES,” whichitself is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/099,362,filed Apr. 4, 2005, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,353,034; each of theseapplications is entitled “LOCATION SHARING AND TRACKING USING MOBILEPHONES OR OTHER WIRELESS DEVICES.” Priority is hereby claimed under 35U.S.C. § 120 or 365(c), and each of these applications is incorporatedherein by reference.

FIELD OF USE AND BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The cellular market in 2003 was around 150-160 million devices in the USand the number is growing at over 10% per year at least. Europe alreadyhas 320 million cell phone users, and the global market is over 1.4billion devices.

Cell phone carriers are looking for opportunities to increase bothrevenue and profits by providing new services. For example, recentlycell phones have been provided with browsers to allow surfing theinternet from the phone. One of the needs businesses, families andindividuals have is the need to know where their employees, children andfriends are. No two way position information sharing technologycurrently exists as far as the applicant is aware.

The one way location sharing prior art includes On Star and the MercedesBenz TeleAid services where, via GPS receivers and cellular phonecapability built into a car, an aid center can track cars all over theworld and speak with the occupants and sense when the cars airbags havedeployed. Other commercial services allow parents to track the locationsof their children in a one way location sharing manner. None of theseservices allow the occupants of the car to know where the aid center isor allows the children to know where their parents are.

Another need is for a system for use by motorists, hikers, pilots andboatmen to allow them to be able to contact rescuers and know thelocation of the rescuers as they come to the aid of the stranded personand to allow the rescuers to know the location of the victims they aretrying to rescue. The need requires that cell phones have the capabilityto be reconfigured in the field to add an “instant buddy” to the list ofpeople with whom location information is shared. The prior art kidtracking systems could not be reconfigured in the field to add newindividuals with whom location information was to be shared.

Differences Over Kid Tracking Prior Art

In the prior art, one could buy phones that were set up at themanufacturer to enable parents to locate their children. One suchservice allows up to eight phones to be used and allows parents tomonitor the locations of their kids. But these services do not allow thekids see the locations of their parents because the service is not setup to share location information between phones. In other words, it is aone way service with the kid's locations being sent to the parentsphones for display but not vice versa. Further, there is no mechanism toadd groups and members of groups, and there is no mechanism to set up“instant buddies” as that term is used below (temporary location sharingbetween phones on an ask and accept basis which automatically expiresafter a configurable interval terminates). The kid locator phones areset up at the factory and nothing can be changed in the field by theusers and they are always on and cannot be disabled.

It is useful to be able to share locations among multiple cell phoneswhich have GPS locator ability. Such an ability would be useful forpeople in groups who have made plans to meet at specific locations atspecific times. When one person is late, the others in the group wouldbe able to ascertain the tardy person's location. To alleviate privacyconcerns, it would be useful to be able to turn off location sharing orto program location sharing so that it turns itself on automatically atsome date and time and turns itself off at some other programmable dateand time. It would also be useful to have a map display on cell phoneswhich are picture enabled and to plot the locations on the map ofpersons in a group who have their location sharing capability turned on.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention contemplates 2.5 GHz and 3 GHz Java enabled, web enabled(or similar) cell phones and Personal Digital Assistants or other webenabled wireless products with global positioning system (GPS) receiversand sufficiently large liquid crystal displays for the preferredembodiment. The phones must be web enabled to be able to send andreceive TCP/IP or other protocol packets over the internet to the BuddyWatch server.

In some embodiments where push-to-talk enablement is implemented, GPSreceivers are not necessary in the cell phones but they must be webenabled to be able to send and receive TCP/IP or other packets over theinternet to the Buddy Watch server.

These phones and other wireless devices are programmed with software(programmed at the factory or downloaded from the assignee of thepresent invention) to have the user interface and functionalitydescribed herein to allow mutual tracking and optional position mappingdisplays of members of groups and of instant buddies coming to therescue of stranded motorists, hikers, pilots and boatmen. These phoneswork with a Buddy Watch™ server coupled to the internet. The server isnot limited to any specific language or technology nor is it limited toany specific wired or wireless solution or any particular transmissionphysical layer or protocol.

The teachings of the invention do not require development of new cellphone or PDA technology nor do they require development of new cellularcommunication infrastructure. The functionality implemented by thesoftware of the invention utilizes existing platforms andinfrastructure. In the preferred embodiment, the software of theinvention is developed to JAVA specifications.

In its primary mode, the process of the invention only allows exchangingand mapping of position data with persons on a Buddy List™ programmedinto a Buddy Watch™ (synonym for Buddy Tracker™) device (defined as anyof the devices mentioned anywhere in the specification when programmedto operate in Buddy Watch mode or coupled to another device operating inBuddy Watch mode). The user must allow others on his Buddy Lists to“see” his location (location sharing may be turned off), and the usermust request to see the location of others on his Buddy Lists to be ableto have their positions reported and/or mapped. Position informationexchanged via radio transmission on the cellular infrastructure isencrypted so that outsiders cannot see or use location information thatis transmitted. A simple menu structure allows easy setup and managementof Buddy Watch application programs. The keypad of the phone or PDA isused to enter information into the Buddy Watch enabled device. Onlinehelp is available to setup and use the Buddy Tracker applicationprogram(s).

The teachings of the invention can also be integrated into otherproducts and services such as autos with GPS based navigation systems.This would be done by expanding the navigation system to have a cellulartransceiver capable of sending and receiving digital data includingposition data to the Buddy Tracker server. It could also be done byexpanding the GPS navigation system product to have a USB or otherinterface port to couple the system to a cell phone or PDA of the typedescribed above. This interface would allow the GPS navigation system toreceive position data from the wireless digital data transceiver and mapthe position data on the GPS navigation system display of the auto.Handheld GPS navigation devices can also be expanded by integrating acell phone therein or providing a port to interface to a cell phone toexchange position information with the Buddy Tracker server.

In a system employing the teachings of the invention, the users canchange things on the fly in the field such as: adding groups andmembers; adding instant buddies, changing the size of the area in whichtheir buddies can be tracked, enabling or disabling the locationinformation sharing function without disabling the phone, etc.

Some of the benefits of the Buddy Tracker technology are that it allowsbusinesses to easily identify which service persons are closest to thenext job and to let personnel in the field know the positions of theirco-workers and to share their location with their co-workers. Parentscan keep track of where their kids are. Friends can keep track of wheretheir buddies are and share their position with their buddies. Locationinformation will be shared only so long as the phone is on and in anarea where the device can receive a GPS signal and send the phone'scoordinates out on the cellular network (and the location sharingcapability is enabled).

Further, the cellular carriers do not have to invest in engineering orinfrastructure to offer the Buddy Watch functionality. The software thatimplements the Buddy Watch functionality can be downloaded from the webor installed at the point of sale of a cell phone or PDA. Use and saleof an application that makes use of the on-board GPS capability of cellphones and PDAs built to comply with the E911 requirement allows thecarriers to recoup some of the costs imposed upon them by the E911requirement.

Enhancements to cellular phones in recent years such as the addition ofcameras and web browsers have lost track of one of the basic reasons forcell phones in the first place—people want to communicate with and knowwhere other people are. This is applicable to parental monitoring andincreasing the efficiency of business and increasing the effectivenessof law enforcement. The Buddy Watch system also functions to decreasethe load on the 911 system since not every situation requires the helpof 911 authorities.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a screen shot of a typical opening screen which would bedisplayed on a cellphone with the BuddyTracker™ software enabled.

FIG. 2A shows a block diagram of the Buddy Watch system.

FIG. 2B illustrates a matrix or web of supervisorial relationships andBuddy Lists.

FIG. 2C is a diagram of the start-up screen.

FIG. 2D shows the Mapit page.

FIG. 2E shows additions options for manual refresh, etc. which can bereached by scrolling down the Mapit page below the list of active users.

FIG. 2F is a screen of active users.

FIG. 3 represents a display in the user interface which showsindividuals on the phone's Buddy List as well as a group of buddieswhich has been given the name Tennis Team.

FIG. 4 is a user interface display showing the result when the tennisteam Buddy List entry is selected and the information that is displayedwhen one of the members of the tennis team is selected for display oflocation information.

FIG. 5 is a user interface display showing a map rendering with thelocation of a selected member of the tennis teach group displayedthereon.

FIG. 6 is a user interface display showing a map rendering with thelocation history of a selected member of the tennis team renderedthereon.

FIG. 7 is a screen shot of a display in a typical system employing theinvention showing positions and status of members of a selected group.

FIG. 8 is a screen display showing what is displayed when Dean isselected and the Mapit command in box 48 is given by double clicking onthe box or by any other means.

FIG. 9 is a screen shot of an instant buddy display after an instantbuddy relationship has been set up.

FIG. 10 is a screen shot of a typical display in a system employing theteachings of the invention to establish an instant buddy ID in box 70,and give the instant buddy a caller ID in box 72 (the instant buddy'scaller ID or phone number is used by default).

FIG. 11 is a screen shot of the display which appears on at least theinstant buddy's phone after a stranded motorist, pilot or hiker hascontacted 911 and entered a caller ID and carrier for a proposed instantbuddy.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram of a typical prior art cellular systeminfrastructure in which the method and apparatus of the invention workin a peer-to-peer embodiment.

FIG. 13, comprised of FIGS. 13A and 13B, is a flowchart of the method ofexchanging GPS position data among cell phones of a watch list.

FIG. 14, comprised of FIGS. 14A, 14B and 14C, is a flowchart ofprocessing of an embodiment that implements several modes of operation.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart of the process of establishing an Instant BuddyRelationship.

FIG. 16 is a block diagram of a typical cellular system coupled by agateway and a Wide Area Network such as the internet to a Buddy Watchserver to provide the infrastructure of the invention.

FIGS. 17A and 17B are a flowchart of the preferred Instant Buddy Setupprocess.

FIGS. 18 and 19 are diagrams of some of the user interface displayscreens involved in the Instant Buddy Setup process.

FIGS. 20A and 20B are a flowchart of the process of enabling thepersonal bread crumbs mode and how it works.

FIG. 21 is a flowchart of another embodiment of a process to establishand use the personal bread crumbs mode.

FIG. 22 is a flowchart of the preferred embodiment for the instant buddysetup process.

FIG. 23 is a flowchart of another embodiment of a process to receivebuddy location update requests and process them.

FIG. 24 is a diagram of the default start screen and some of the otheruser interface screens that the user can navigate to from the startscreen.

FIG. 25 is a help screen showing how navigation to a view new alarmsscreen can be accomplished.

FIG. 26 shows the tree structure of a plurality of other screens whichcan be used to add target locations, annotate the target locations withtext, voice or photo notes, add a text message, give commands to take apicture or find a picture file, record a voice message to be appended tothe target, request position updates for all active buddies, map thepositions of all active buddies or select particular buddies for mappingor requesting a position update.

FIG. 27 shows a number of screens which can be displayed to map theposition of a selected user with history and give information about theuser as well as send short text messages, record and send voicemessages, photos, Instant Messenger links, target positions, etc.

FIGS. 28A and 28B show user interface screens created by Buddy Trackersoftware to create settings such as bread crumbs on or off, securitycodes for personal bread crumbs tracking and verification that a user isOK, set checkup timeout intervals, establish phone numbers and emailaddresses of other users to call in case of emergency in personal breadcrumbs mode, add, change or delete group names, set the Mapit screenradius, refresh rate and update setting, refresh time, delta positionchange for refresh.

FIG. 29 shows the user interface screens to create a new buddy andshowing the communication paths and accept protocol to do this.

FIG. 30 is a diagram of the user interface screens for defining,deleting and using map rooms for closed proximity groups, open proximitygroups, etc. For closed proximity group map rooms, listed users can settheir preferences to automatically enter or be alerted that they are inthe Zone and manually decide to enter.

FIG. 31 is a block diagram of the system for TalkControl to simplifycell phone walkie-talkie operations.

FIG. 32 is a flow diagram of a process a user of a walkie-talkie enabledphone can initiate to join a talk group to enable subsequentwalkie-talkie operations.

FIG. 33 is a flowchart of the process the Rubicon server carries out toautomatically delete a user.

FIG. 34 is a flowchart of the process the Rubicon server carries out toallow a supervisor to add a user.

FIG. 35 is a flowchart of the process for a supervisor to edit a user ina talk group.

FIG. 36 is a flowchart of a process for a supervisor to delete a userfrom a talk group.

FIG. 37 is a flowchart of a process for a supervisor to issue a token.

FIG. 38 is a flowchart for the process of setting up preferences.

FIG. 39 is a flowchart of the process to allow a supervisor to requeststatus.

FIG. 40 is a process flowchart of the process for a supervisor to createa group.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED AND ALTERNATIVE EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 is a screen shot of a typical opening screen which would bedisplayed on a cellphone with the Buddy Tracker™ software enabled on thephone. FIG. 2A is a block diagram of the Buddy Watch system. A BuddyWatch or Rubicon server communicates with wireless devices 2 through 6via the internet 9 and wireless carrier systems 7 and 8. In the claims,the Buddy Tracker software is called the GPS position data sharingsoftware application and it is resident on each of wireless devices 2through 6. Generally, communication between the handsets and the Rubicon(Buddy Watch) server occurs as follows. Each handset communicates datapackets through its local cellular carrier network via TCP/IP compliantdata packets encapsulated in cell system packets. The carrier networktower receives the packets and strips off the cellular encapsulation andforwards the TCP/IP packet to an appropriate gateway connected to theinternet 9. Routers in the internet route the packet to its destination,generally the Buddy Watch server 1. The receiving server validates thecontent of the IP packet to authenticate the sender as a registeredRubicon user and to verify that the sending phone EIN matches the phoneEIN stored in the server. Once authenticated, the packet content isprocessed by the server. A response to the request in the packet isprepared using information from a database maintained by the Rubiconserver and any associated map needed for the response is requested froma map server. The complete response is compiled, including any dataneeded to render a map on the recipient wireless device display andpacketized into a TCP/IP packet and sent back to the originator of therequest via internet routers and carrier gateways that couple thewireless carrier systems to the internet. The gateway of the carrieridentifies the correct tower for the cell in which the recipient's phoneis currently resident and the packet is encapsulated in a cell systempacket and forwarded to the appropriate tower where it is transmittedwirelessly to the cell phone or other wireless device of the recipient.The wireless device then recovers the data in the TCP/IP packet and theport address in the TCP/IP packet header causes the packet to be routedto the Buddy Watch software where it is processed.

FIG. 2C is a diagram of the start-up screen. On startup, each handsetstarts its GPS sampler and the Buddy Watch application program. If Mainis pressed, the user is taken to the Nextel default page (or whateverother carrier is being used). If Mapit is selected, the user is taken tothe Mapit page shown in FIG. 2D. FIG. 2D shows the Mapit page where thepositions of active users within the radius set up in the preferences ofthe center point XXX within radius YYY is shown. Scrolling down theMapit page below the map is the list of active users including thoseoutside the radius. FIG. 2E shows additional options for manual refresh,etc. which can be reached by scrolling down the Mapit page below thelist of active users. FIG. 2F is a screen of active users. Color is usedto highlight items. Scrolling to a user and pressing OK gives twooptions: re-centering the map on the user and displaying details of thatuser.

The Buddy Tracker software creates the displays such as that shown inFIG. 1 and other user interface displayed discussed elsewhere herein.FIG. 24 is a diagram of the default start screen and some of the otheruser interface screens that the user can navigate to from the startscreen. This is a help/emergency screen 15 which has a next command 19which can be selected to take the user to the 911 screen 17 which can beused to take the user to a screen 21 wherein the user can select thetype of help requested. FIG. 25 is the help screen and shows hownavigation to view a new alarms screen can be accomplished. FIG. 26shows the tree structure of a plurality of other screens which can beused to add target locations, annotate the target locations with text,voice or photo notes, add a text message, give commands to take apicture or find a picture file, record a voice message to be appended tothe target, request position updates for all active buddies, map thepositions of all active buddies or select particular buddies for mappingor requesting a position update. FIG. 27 shows a number of screens whichcan be displayed to map the position of a selected user with history andgive information about the user as well as send short text messages,record and send voice messages, photos, Instant Messenger links, targetpositions, etc. FIGS. 28A and 28B show user interface screens created byBuddy Tracker software to create settings such as turning bread crumbson or off, security codes for personal bread crumbs tracking andverification that a user is OK, set checkup timeout intervals, establishphone numbers and email addresses of other users to call in case ofemergency in personal bread crumbs mode, add, change or delete groupnames, set the Mapit screen radius, refresh rate and update setting,refresh time, delta position change for refresh. FIG. 29 shows the userinterface screens to create a new buddy and shows the communicationpaths and accept protocol to do this. FIG. 29, is discussed more below,and is a representation of the screens and protocols to initiate andaccept an instant buddy relationship. FIG. 30 is a diagram of the userinterface screens for defining, deleting and using map rooms for closedproximity groups, open proximity groups, etc. For closed proximity groupmap rooms, listed users can set their preferences to automatically enteror be alerted that they are in the Zone and manually decide to enter.For Open Proximity Group Map Rooms, anyone can join by opting in fromtheir phone or from a sponsor's website. Upon entry, they can view andbe viewed by all other members in the map room. Proximity rooms areuseful to find and be found by friends attending an event.

In FIG. 1, area 10 discloses that the Buddy Tracker location sharingapplication software is active and is sharing the location of the phonewith other members of a designated group. Area 12 indicates thatparental status is active which means that the employer of the employeecarrying the phone or the parent of the kid carrying the phone can seethe location of the employee or kid if the phone is on. When parentalstatus is active, the supervisory function cannot be turned off orevaded. This supervisory location sharing can be hierarchical such thatan employer can see the location of all its employees, and each of theemployees can be set up as supervisor of their children such that theemployees can see the locations of their children, but the employer ofeach employee cannot see the locations of the children of each employee.The supervisorial relationships can be set up to define a matrix or webof Buddy List and supervisorial relationships, such as is illustrated inFIG. 2B.

In FIG. 2B, phone A has phones C and D on its Buddy List and is set upas the supervisor of those two phones. Phone B has phones A, G, F and Eon its Buddy List and is set up as the supervisor of those phones. PhoneH has phones E, J and I on its Buddy List and is set up to supervisethose. Phone K has phone I on its Buddy List and is set up to supervisephone I.

Each of the phones in FIGS. 2A and 2B is coupled to the cellular carrierinfrastructure in a conventional manner and can send phone calls orshort text messages or email messages to any other phone including thecell phones represented by lettered circles in FIG. 2B. FIG. 12 is ablock diagram of a typical prior art cellular system infrastructure inwhich the teachings of the invention in a peer-to-peer embodiment can bepracticed. An area of the country is divided into several cellsrepresented by circles such as 93 and 95. Inside each cell is atransceiver tower, represented by blocks 94 and 96 which carries outtime division multiple access or code division multiple access digitalradio communications with cell phones in its cell. The cell phones orPDAs are represented by autos 98 and 100. Data recovered from the cellphone transmissions is transmitted to a central switching system 102 bydata paths such as 104 and 106. The central switching system 102 iscoupled to a public service telephone network 108.

Transmissions from one cell phone to another take place via the towerssuch as 94 and 96 and the central switching system 102. For example,suppose cell phone 98 wants to send its GPS location data to cell phone100 and cell phone 100 wants to send its GPS location data to cell phone98. The system of the invention uses some communication protocol such asXML, modified short text messages or other methods to send GPS locationinformation to all cell phones on a Watch list. XML is a slimmed downversion of SGML and enables Web authors to create their own tags so thatthey can more accurately capture the structure of their data. Becausethis structure can be read by SML-compliant browsers, the informationencoded in these tags can be made available to programs such as Javaapplets or it can be displayed by formatting the XML tags with a stylesheet.

In the preferred embodiment, the wireless devices in a group which haslocation tracking turned on periodically send their GPS position data toall the other members in the group. The process for each wireless deviceto send its position data to any other wireless device in the group isas shown in FIGS. 13A and 13B. Basically, FIG. 13 is a flow chart of theprocess of two or more cell phones exchanging encrypted GPS positiondata. FIG. 23, discussed below, is a flowchart of another embodiment ofa process to receive and process Buddy location update requests. Theprocess of FIG. 13 starts at step 110 with a request for a positionupdate. In the preferred embodiment, this happens when a user of a BuddyTracker phone uses his phone to make a request for a location update. Inother embodiments, location updates can be requested automatically andperiodically by the Buddy Tracker software on a device that is reportingits position. In other embodiments, a position update can beautomatically generated by a device which is reporting its position toother members of a group whenever the position of the device has changedfrom its last reported position by a programmable amount. The requestedposition update may be sent to everybody on a selected Buddy List orjust a single person's wireless device. In some embodiments, theposition update is sent to some subset of persons on a selected BuddyList. Step 112 represents the process of looking up the addresses forall people on the selected Buddy List, a watch list, just selectedindividual or a subset of individuals from a watch list, as the case maybe. Some embodiments may be limited to position updates on entire BuddyLists.

Step 114 represents the process of reading the GPS position data fromthe built in GPS receiver of the phone (or the GPS receiver of thenavigation system) and encrypting the position data.

In step 116, cell phone 98 puts its encrypted GPS location data into amessage according to the chosen communication protocol (assume shorttext message—SMS for short) and addresses the message packets to the oneor more phones of the selected persons with which position informationis to be shared.

In step 118, the SMS message packets are transmitted to tower 94 usingwhatever physical layer protocol the cellular system uses such as TDMAor CDMA. The header of the SMS packets contains data indicating thepayload data is to be sent to the Buddy Watch software of a particularcell phone and not to the inbox of the phone's SMS software. The payloaddata of these packets is the encrypted GPS position data. The physicallayer protocol typically involves the following steps. First, thepackets are disassembled into groups of bits of some predetermined sizecalled codewords the size of which depends upon the particularconfiguration of the forward error correction software. The codewordsare then interleaved to help defeat burst errors. Each codeword can thenbe encoded with error detection and correction bits such as by usingReed Solomon encoding. The codewords are then broken down into groups ofbits called constellation points. The number of bits in each groupdepends upon the type of modulation scheme in use. In some embodiments,the groups of bits are then further encoded in a Trellis encoder.

The encrypted GPS position data packets would be addressed such thatthey would be routed in the cellular system to all the other wirelessdevices using the Buddy Tracker software which requested a positionupdate. This is done by routing the packets to the cell transceivers inthe cells in which the wireless devices which require updates arecurrently registered, as represented by step 120. For example, if cellphone 100 in FIG. 12 is on the Watch list or is being automaticallyupdated or has requested a position update manually, it will havetransmitted a packet to transceiver 96 indicating it needs a positionupdate and, when the wireless device entered cell 95, it will haveexchanged packets with transceiver 96 to achieve synchronization withtransceiver 96 and to register in cell 95. Each wireless device that isregistered in a cell will have done this, and the transceivers in eachcell will communicate with the central switching system 102 to indicatewhich wireless devices are registered in their cells. Therefore, therouters in central switching system 102 will know which wireless devicesare registered in each cell and will know which wireless devices are toreceive position updates. Step 120 represents the process of receivingthe signals from each wireless device that are modulated withconstellation points that contain the data of packets that contain GPSpositions, recovering the data from the constellation points and doingerror detection and correction and recovering the GPS position datapackets. These packets are then routed to the central switching systemwhich uses the destination addresses in the packets and its routingtables to route them to the transceivers in whatever cell or cells thewireless devices that require position updates are registered. There,the packets are disassembled, encoded with error correction anddetection data, and assembled into symbols or constellation points inwhatever type modulation (QAM, QPSK, etc.) is being used and transmittedto the wireless device. This happens for every wireless device on awatch list or which has requested a position update.

At each wireless device which receives the signals modulated with theconstellation points bearing the GPS position data, the data of eachpacket is recovered and the packet is reassembled, as symbolized by step122. The header data of the packet (the port number in the case ofTCP/IP) packets causes the wireless device to pass the packet to theBuddy Tracker software which is monitoring a particular port, step 124.When a packet is passed to that port (or just the payload data thereof),the payload data is decrypted and the position data recovered, step 126.Step 126 also represents the process of reading the header data of theincoming packets and determining which other member of a buddy groupsent the position update so that the position information for the propermember of the Buddy Group is displayed. The position data is then usedto display the position of the other party in the group who sent thepacket, and, if the user gives the “Mapit” command, the position datawill be converted to a waypoint on a displayed map so as to graphicallydisplay the position of the wireless device which sent the packet.

Step 128 represents the process of the device which received theposition update encrypting its own GPS position into short message oremail packets addressed to the other members of a Buddy Watch group orto a single other wireless device. These packets are then sent to allthe other wireless devices by the same process described in steps 116,118, 120, 122 and 124 of FIGS. 13A and 13B, as represented by step 130.

FIG. 23 is a flowchart of another embodiment of a process to receivebuddy location update requests and process them. Step 220 representsrequesting a buddy location update. Addresses of all persons on thebuddy list or just a selected buddy are located in step 222. Messagepackets are generated in 224 addressed to the selected Buddy List orindividuals, and encrypted position data is put in them. A request issent—226, and these packets get routed to the Rubicon server—228. Theinitiator and recipient are authenticated—230, and the packets areforwarded to the recipients via the cell system. The cell systemforwards the packets to whatever cell each recipient is in—232. Thepacket arrives and causes a GPS position request to be made in eachwireless device—234. The device captures its current GPS position, andencrypts it and packetizes the GPS position in the payload portion of apacket addressed to the Rubicon server with information as to therequestor in some embodiments. The packet is then sent with a timestampto the Rubicon server for forwarding to the requesting Buddy—238 and240. The Rubicon server authenticates the initiator and the recipientand forwards the packet to the initiator via the cell system—242. Thecell system forwards the packet to the cell where the initiatorrecipient is located—244. The initiators cell phone receives the packet,and recovers the timestamp—246, and reads the packet header and portnumber of the GPS information and uses the port number to route thepacket to the Buddy Tracker software—248. The Buddy Tracker applicationprogram on the initiator's cell phone receives and decrypts the GPSinformation from the packet, displays the position of the Buddy, anduses information in the header to determine which other Buddies sentposition updates—250. The wireless device of the initiator responds tothe position update of each Buddy by sending a reply packet with theencrypted position of the initiator—252. Each requested Buddy deviceupdates the Rubicon server and the wireless device of the requestingbuddy with its position—254.

Out of Coverage Update Response

In some embodiments, when a wireless device requests an update fromanother wireless device, and the other wireless device is out ofcellular coverage, a timeout occurs. When a timeout occurs withoutreceiving a position update, the wireless device expecting the updatechanges its display to yellow or some other color for the wirelessdevice which is out of coverage. The Buddy Watch system only works whenthe phone is on and in a cellular coverage area.

Buddy Watch Modes

FIG. 14, comprised of FIGS. 14A, 14B and 14C is a flowchart ofprocessing of an embodiment that implements the several modes describedbelow. The steps that are numbered with like numbers to steps in FIG. 13represent the same functionality.

1) Disable: The Buddy Watch application can be disabled by the user.When disabled, the wireless device does not share its GPS position datawith any other wireless device so no other buddy can see your position.There is an exception for the parental monitoring function. Whenparental monitoring is turned on, as symbolized by line 111 in FIG. 14A,the wireless device always shares its GPS position and cannot bedisabled. The disable functionality is represented by test 113 in FIG.14A which determines when a position update is requested whether theBuddy Watch function has been turned off. If so, processing proceeds totest 115 which determines if parental monitoring is turned on. If not,processing proceeds back to step 110 along line 117 and GPS positionsharing does not happen. If the Buddy Watch function has not beendisabled, processing proceeds to step 112 to look up the addresses ofthe wireless devices to which the position update is to be sent. Whenthe Buddy Watch application is disabled and it has been operating andparental monitoring is not turned on, a final position update is sent issent to those wireless devices on the current Watch List (the wirelessdevices which are active and monitoring each other's positions).

2. Enable: This is the normal mode of operation. Buddies can be added ordeleted from the Watch List at any time. Any wireless device that isoperating and on the Watch List can find the location of any otherdevice on the Watch List by issuing a position update request. If abuddy is removed from a Buddy List, he or she is not able to receiveposition updates. Multiple lists can be joined to form a group.

3. Supervisor—Parental/Corporate Code: In this mode, as long as thewireless device of the worker or child is on, the supervisor will beable to monitor position by GPS position updates. The worker or childwill not be able to disable the Buddy Watch feature nor remove theparent or supervisor from the Watch List. Only the supervisor or parentwill have the necessary password to remove himself from a Buddy List orwatch list.

4. Buddy Lists: This is the normal mode of operation. Buddies can beadded or deleted from a list at any time. If a buddy is off a BuddyList, he cannot receive position updates from any other wireless deviceon the list. Multiple Buddy Lists can be joined into a group and entiregroups may be enabled and disabled. Workgroup lists are lists of buddieswhich need to be aware of the location of their coworkers during workinghours but not after. Buddy Lists or Buddy Groups are a means to have asingle icon, folder or some similar graphic user interface (GUI)mechanism to represent a list of people and enables single commands toturn on or turn off tracking of a group of people. If a folder is usedfor each Buddy Group, a drop down list showing the specific names andlocations of each person on the list can be displayed when the folder oricon representing the group is selected. If an icon is used, the Buddieswould be grouped in and shown on the phone display. Groups receive acolor on the GUI and the members of the group are connected by atranslucent shaped outline encompassing all the points representingpositions on the Mapit display. If the group is spread too far apart tobe shown on a single Mapit display, then the shaped outline for thegroup is not shown and on the specific color coded Buddy positions thatcan be shown are shown. If the Mapit display is zoomed out, thetranslucent group outline returns when all members of the group can beshown on a single screen. Buddies that are in multiple groups arecolored a non group color or the color of any of the displayed groups.If groups overlay and when Buddies that are in two active groups areshown, the translucent outline shall overlap as needed, and only coverBuddies that exist in both lists.

5. Instant Buddies: Instant Buddies can be created when a call is placedbetween two cell phones, phone enabled PDAs or other wireless BuddyWatch enabled devices. FIG. 15 is a flowchart of the process ofestablishing an Instant Buddy Relationship. The first step is 132 wherethe wireless device places or receives a call from a Buddy Watch enabledwireless device to or from another Buddy Watch enabled wireless device.The two users such as a stranded motorist and a tow truck driver discussthe situation and decide to establish an Instant Buddy relationship.After the call is established, and the two agree to allow it, the twowireless device users can click on the Instant Buddy menu choice in theBuddy Watch menu, as symbolized by step 134. The wireless devices theneach display an Instant Buddy Setup screen like that shown in FIG. 11(step 136) and fill in the appropriate data (fields 84, 88 and 86) instep 138. Both users then indicate their acceptance (field 92 or denythe relationship (field 90), or in some embodiments, only the recipientof the call needs to accept or deny the relationship. Once the InstantBuddy relationship is accepted, the two wireless devices startexchanging position data (step 140). After 24 hours, or some other timeset in the Instant Buddy preference menu (timeout checked in step 142),Instant Buddies are discarded (step 144). The Instant Buddy preferencemenu allows the time period for the Instant Buddy relationship to be setto something other than the default value of 24 hours.

Preferred Instant Buddy Setup Process

FIG. 16 is a block diagram of a typical cellular system coupled by agateway and a Wide Area Network such as the internet to a Buddy Watchserver to provide the infrastructure of the invention. The cellularsystem shown in FIG. 16 is typical and has the same structure andoperation as the cellular system of FIG. 12. What is new is theconnection between the central switching system and a Buddy Watch server146 through gateway 148. The purpose of this will be made clear in thefollowing discussion of the preferred Instant Buddy setup process.

Buddy Watch Server Functions

The Buddy Watch server's main function is to serve maps to the cellphones registered in the Buddy Watch system and implement GPS positiondata exchanges between itself and the phones on a buddy list to enablemembers of a buddy list to view the locations of other members of thelist. In some embodiments, the Buddy Watch server also downloadsapplication software as needed to phones registered in the system as thephones send packets to the Buddy Watch server indicating a particularcommand has been given which requires an application program on thephone which is not present.

In the preferred embodiment, the Buddy Watch server runs all theapplication programs on the server and just sends pages to be displayedon the phone to solicit the user to enter data needed to implement afunction.

If the phones had as much memory as the Personal Digital Assistants, theapplication programs could be loaded and run on the phones themselves.

Other functions of the Buddy Watch server are: setup of user profiles,billing and database access and maintenance.

Purchase/Payment Activate Deactivate Key

The functions of the Buddy Watch server will be made clear indiscussions which follow. But one of its functions will be to manageactivate and deactivate codes. The Buddy Watch application will be aservice which a cellular carrier offers on a subscription basis. When asubscriber buys a Buddy Watch enabled phone, he will be issued anactivation code and the Buddy Watch server will also be given theactivation code. This activation code will be kept in active status aslong as the subscriber has paid for the service. Subsequentcommunications of packet data between the Buddy Watch server and thephone such as downstream position updates of positions of buddies on aBuddy List, receipt of phone position for use in updating other buddieson a Buddy List, etc. will only be enabled as long as the activationcode is in active status. When the subscriber stops paying for theservice, the activation code will be changed to a deactivation codestatus, and subsequent communication between the phone and the BuddyWatch server will be impossible. The Buddy Watch server implements thisfunctionality by checking the activation code status each time beforecommunication with a phone is carried out.

The Buddy Watch application is downloaded via the internet forsubscribers who do not already have it on their phones. The customerreceives an activate code to key into the phone, or an activationapplication on the Buddy Watch server receives confirmation of thepurchase and automatically sends the activate code to the phone/PersonalDigital Assistant and receives back a confirmation. Each month, paymentfor the service is required. Failure to make the payment results in anapplication receiving a request to deactivate the Buddy Watchapplication on the phone/PDA. A deactivate code is sent and a responseis received back confirming the phone application has been deactivated.Further attempts to use the application are met with a simple displayindicating the service subscription has expired.

The protocol to activate and deactivate the Buddy Watch application issecure in the preferred embodiment.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart of one embodiment for an Instant Buddy Setupprocess. FIGS. 18 and 19 are diagrams of some of the user interfacedisplay screens involved in the Instant Buddy Setup process. All threefigures will be referred to in the following discussion. In thepreferred embodiment, the Instant Buddy relationship is set up in thefollowing manner.

1) An initiator selects the Instant Buddy menu choice options in step150. This is done by selecting menu option 151 of screen 153 in FIG. 18.This causes a transition to display screen 155 on the initiator's devicewhere the user selects menu option 157. This causes a transition toscreen 159 on FIG. 19 which is the Instant Buddy setup screen. Thisscreen shows the initiator's phone number, Instant Buddy ID and ScreenID in auto filled fields 161, 163 and 165, respectively (step 152).There is also a timeout field 167 which the initiator can set to sometime if the default time of midnight is not acceptable (step 154). Afterfilling in the timeout value, the Initiator clicks Next in field 169.2) Instant Buddy request packets are generated and sent to the celltransceiver of whatever cell the wireless device of the initiator isregistered. These packets contain data which identifies the initiatorand the recipient (proposed Instant Buddy) and are addressed to the IPaddress of the Buddy Watch server 146 in FIG. 16. The packets arerecovered by the cell transceiver, sent to the central switching system102 and routed from there to gateway 148 where they are routed over widearea network 147 to the Buddy Watch server (step 156).3) Buddy Watch server authenticates the initiator and the recipient fromdata in the packet as a Buddy Watch subscribers. If either is not aBuddy Watch subscriber, the server blocks the transaction by notforwarding the packets to the recipient. Assuming both are subscribers,the server forwards the Instant Buddy request packets to the recipient'swireless device and these packets get routed in the cell system (step160) via the gateway, central switching system and cell transceiver ofthe cell in which the recipient's wireless device is registered.4) The proposed Instant Buddy's wireless device receives the packets anddisplays an Instant Buddy Request screen (step 164) like that shown at171 in FIG. 19 (step 162). This screen shows the phone number, InstantBuddy ID and Screen ID of the Initiator so the recipient knows who hasrequested the Instant Buddy relationship. The recipient can eitheraccept or deny the relationship using commands displayed at 173 and 175.5) If the Instant Buddy relationship is accepted (step 166), processingproceeds to step 168 where an accepted packet is sent back to theinitiator's wireless device. If the Instant Buddy relationship isdenied, step 170 sends a denied packet back to the Initiator device andthe process is over (step 172) save for a display on the Initiatordevice that the Instant Buddy relationship has been denied.6) When the accepted packet arrives at the Initiator device, the deviceshows an Instant Buddy accepted screen as shown at 177 in FIG. 19 (step174). This screen shows the phone number, Instant Buddy ID and Screen IDof the recipient and provides commands to accept or cancel therelationship at fields 179 and 181.7) If the Initiator accepts the Instant Buddy relationship (step 176),step 178 occurs where an accepted packet is sent back to the Recipientthrough the Buddy Watch server.8) The Buddy Watch server records the existence of the new Instant Buddyrelationship (step 180), and both wireless devices start sending theirGPS position data in packets addressed to the Buddy Watch server. TheBuddy Watch server stores the position data from each wireless deviceand forwards the packets to the other device for updating of theirdisplays. In the preferred embodiment, the Buddy Watch server pulls anappropriate map from the MapQuest server 149 in FIG. 16 based upon theGPS position data of the Initiator and sends that map and the GPSposition data in packets addressed to the Recipient. The Buddy Watchserver then pulls an appropriate map from the MapQuest server based uponthe Recipient's position, and sends that map and the Recipient's GPSposition to the Initiator. Each wireless device then displays theposition of the other Instant Buddy on the map provided by the BuddyWatch server.

An alternative Instant Buddy setup process is described next:

1) A call from one wireless device to another is initiated;

2) After agreeing to establish an Instant Buddy relationship, theinitiator clicks on the Instant Buddy menu option;

3) This causes an Instant Buddy Setup screen to be shown on theinitiator's device which has a first field which is auto-filled with theinitiator's phone number, a second field which is auto-filled with anInstant Buddy ID, and a third field which is auto-filled with a ScreenID for the Instant Buddy (this screen ID is a three digit number whichwill be displayed with the position of the Instant Buddy and is shorterthan the Instant Buddy ID);4) The initiator fills in a timeout period for the Instant Buddyrelationship or accepts the default value of midnight and clicks a Nextcommand;5) The recipient's wireless device receives the instant buddy requestand displays an Instant Buddy Request screen that shows the initiator'sphone number, Instant Buddy ID and Screen ID and displays an accept ordeny command;6) The recipient either accepts or denies the Instant Buddyrelationship;7) If the recipient accepts the Instant Buddy relationship, this fact iscommunicated to the initiator's wireless device which then displays ascreen which displays the recipient's phone number and the recipient'sInstant Buddy ID and his or her Screen ID and displays an accept or denycommand which the initiator can click on;8) If the initiator selects the accept command, both wireless devicesstart exchanging GPS position data, but they do not if the initiatordecides to deny the Instant Buddy relationship.

FIG. 22 is a flowchart of the preferred embodiment for the instant buddysetup process. The initiator selects the instant buddy setupprocess—250, and enters the phone of the proposed new instant buddy—252.The initiator fills in timeout period—254, and instant buddy packets getrouted to the Rubicon (Buddy Watch) server through the cell system—256.Rubicon server authenticates the initiator and recipient and forwardspackets to cell system—258. The cell system routes packets to the cellwhere the proposed new instant buddy is—260, and the proposed instantbuddy receives a message on her wireless device and displays the instantbuddy request screen—262. The instant buddy sees the initiator buddy ID,screen ID and, optionally, his phone number—264, and accepts or deniesthe relationship—266, 270, 272. If accepted, a packet is sent back tothe initiator's wireless device—268, which causes the initiator's deviceto show an Instant Buddy accept screen with the recipient's phonenumber, buddy ID and screen ID which the initiator must OK to establishthe relationship—274. Steps 276, 278 and 280 handle the acceptance orrejection. In 282, if accepted, the Rubicon server records the newinstant buddy relationship and both wireless devices start sharinglocation information with the Rubicon (X One) server where it is storedand forwarded to the other Instant Buddy. In 284, the initiator's deviceshows the Instant Buddy Accept screen. Steps 286, 288 verify the phoneis collecting GPS data using the GPS sampler program.

User Interface Displays for Buddy Lists

FIG. 3 represents a display in the user interface which showsindividuals on the phone's Buddy List as well as a group of buddieswhich has been given the name Tennis Team. In all the user interfacescreen shots in the figures of this patent application, a cross hatchedarea indicates an active status and is typically colored green on thephone display. For example, each cross hatched buddy in column 14indicates that that buddy's location sharing is active and his positioncan be seen if the user clicks on that buddy using whatever navigationor pointing mechanism that is built into the cell phone user interface.

The Buddy Tracker software also has the ability to set up instantbuddies with, for example, tow truck drivers. Display area 16 shows aninstant buddy entry for an instant buddy named Inst01. For example, theuser's car breaks down. The user calls a towing service, and finds outthe tow truck driver has a cell phone with Buddy Tracker on it. The userdials the tow truck driver's cell phone and requests to be an instantbuddy of the tow truck driver's phone. His phone is then set up as aninstant buddy on the user's phone. After both phones are set up asinstant buddies, each phone shows the location of the other phone on itsmoving map. This allows the tow truck driver to find the user tow truckcustomer and the user customer to know where the tow truck driver is.

FIG. 4 shows another user interface display that results from selectingthe tennis team entry 18 on the Buddy List of FIG. 4 and then clickingon the Tracie entry. When the Tracie entry is clicked, the informationin column 20 appears showing her full name, position, the time of herlast fix, her distance from the user and her speed. A green status(cross hatched) means a buddy has his phone on with location sharingturned on and the phone is within range. A yellow status for a buddy(stippled) means the buddy was active and had his location sharingturned on, but contact with him has been lost for one reason or another.A darker green status (double cross hatched), means the buddy is activeand has his location sharing turned on but he is out of the immediatearea that can easily be shown on the phone's map display. For example,suppose most of the tennis team group are in the Northern Californiaarea, but one member of the group is in Los Angeles. If the member inLos Angeles has his phone turned on with location sharing on, his entryin the tennis team list will be shown as dark green meaning his positioncannot be mapped.

The Mapit function shown at 22 in FIG. 4 is a function that can beinvoked to map the location of Tracie Saka on the phone's display. IfTracie is within range, and the Mapit function is clicked, a displaysuch as the one shown in FIG. 5 is rendered on the phone's displayshowing the general area and showing Tracie's position at 24 with a textbox 26 superimposed on the map with Tracie's name rendered therein.

FIG. 6 is a user interface display showing a map rendering with thelocation history of a selected member of the tennis team renderedthereon. This display is rendered when the Mapit with History function28 in FIG. 4 is selected. This display shows the path Tracie took to getto her current location by way of waypoints 30, 31, 32 and 33. In someembodiments, when a user wishes to record a waypoint for their currentposition, a command can be given that causes the current position of thephone to be reported and saved as a waypoint on the Buddy Watch server146 in FIG. 16.

In other embodiments, a particular position such as the phones currentposition or a position selected by moving crosshairs on a map display ona phone can be sent as a meeting place to all buddies on a Buddy List.When such a command is given and a Buddy List is selected, the positionof the meeting place and the designated Buddy List is put into packetsaddressed to the Buddy Watch server 146 and transmitted thereto wherethe information is stored. The meeting position is then packetized inpackets addressed to all the buddies of the designated Buddy List, andthose packets are addressed to the phones of the buddies on thedesignated Buddy List and sent thereto.

Referring to FIG. 7, there is shown a display of a screen showingpositions and status of members of a selected group. In this example,Tracie and Karen's positions are known and their name boxes in the leftcolumn are displayed in some color such as green indicating they arewithin cellular coverage and their positions are known. On the otherhand, Dean's name box is shown in some other distinctive color such asyellow (represented by single cross hatch) to indicate contact with Deanhas been lost. This happens when a user travels outside cellularcoverage. Because Dean's name box is currently selected by the cursor,the settings column has the last known information about Dean alsodisplayed in the distinctive color and represented by a single crosshatch. These boxes show Dean's last known position fix time (box 34),his full name (box 36), his last known distance (box 38), and his lastknown direction, latitude, longitude and speed (boxes 40, 42, 44 and 46,respectively).

FIG. 8 is a screen display showing what is displayed when Dean isselected and the Mapit command in box 48 is given by double clicking onthe box or by any other means. When this Mapit command is given, Dean'slast known position is displayed with a circle of a distinctive color(such as red), as illustrated at 50.

Instant Buddy Display with Mapit Position Mapping

An instant buddy relationship also allows the location of the motorist,lost or injured hiker or other user to appear on the tow truck orambulance driver's cell phone Mapit display.

FIG. 9 is an instant buddy display showing the instant buddy position.This display can be selected after an instant buddy relationship hasbeen set up. This display shows the ID of the instant buddy in box 52,the time of the last position fix in box 54, the distance to the instantbuddy in box 56. The direction to the instant buddy, latitude andlongitude and speed of the instant buddy are shown in boxes 58, 60, 62and 64, respectively. If the user selects the Mapit command in box 66 orthe Mapit with history command in box 68, the phone display will changeto a display like that shown in FIG. 8 or FIG. 6, respectively, with thecurrent position of the instant buddy shown and the prior positionsshown if the history option is selected.

Alternative Instant Buddy Setup Process: To set up an instant buddyrelationship, the phone is given a command to display an instant buddysetup screen like that shown in FIG. 10. The display of FIG. 10 is usedto establish an instant buddy ID in box 70, give the instant buddy acaller ID in box 72 (the instant buddy's caller ID or phone number isused by default). Box 74 is used to establish a timeout period at theend of which the instant buddy relationship is automatically terminated.The timeout period can be set to any interval in some embodiments, or tosome selected interval from a drop down menu. Box 76 is used toestablish the carrier the instant buddy is using. A cancel command isshown at 78 and a request command is shown at 80.

To start the instant buddy relationship, the request command is issuedafter the other boxes are filled in. Typically, a stranded motorist orhiker will call a tow truck or 911 and get the caller ID and carrier ofthe tow truck driver or rescuer. The stranded motorist or hiker willthen enter this information in boxes 72 and 76. Box 70 shows an instantbuddy ID which is automatically assigned by the system. After enteringthe information, the request command shown at 80 is selected. The screenof the rescuer's phone will then change to the display shown in FIG. 11.The information the requester filled in on the FIG. 10 screen willappear in boxes 82, 84, 86 and 88 on the stranded motorist or hiker'sphone as well as on the instant buddy's phone (the tow truck or 911rescuer). Commands for Denied and Accepted will also appear at 90 and 92of the instant buddy's phone. If the instant buddy desires to accept theinstant buddy relationship, he or she selects the accept command, andthe tracking of the two instant buddies' positions will begin. Uponacceptance of the instant buddy relationship, each instant buddy's phonedisplays changes to the display shown in FIG. 9 from which the Mapit orMapit with history command can be issued.

Corporate Supervision Setup Via Passcode

Corporations that wish to monitor the locations of their employees canuse the system of the invention by using a corporate passcode. In thismode of operations, corporate employees are set up as a group with theirsupervisor as one member of the group. Each employee in the group canhave his own buddies but he cannot delete the supervisor from the group.Only the supervisor can delete himself from the group of each employee'sphone since only the supervisor has the passcode to change the group'smembers to delete himself. In one embodiment, the location informationsharing is unidirectional from employees to supervisor but each employeecan see the location of other employees on their phones but not thelocation of the supervisor. In this embodiment, the location sharing canbe configured to be on only during working hours Monday to Friday. Inother embodiments, the employees can see the locations of the supervisoras well as the locations of the other employees.

Timed Updates

The teachings of the invention contemplate doing position updatesperiodically at configurable intervals as well as a configuration optionto do periodic updates as well as an update every x miles if a buddy ina group being monitored moves more than x miles between periodicupdates. In some embodiments, the velocity at which a Buddy is moving orthe amount of distance since the last update a Buddy has moved controlsthe frequency of the updates. Timed updates are handy for parents tomonitor the positions of their children to make sure they do not movemore than X miles from their home base. Position updates can berequested by a member of a Buddy List for position updates from theBuddy Watch server. The server receives positions reports from all theBuddy Watch phones registered with it and stores them and knows theBuddy Lists for each phone. When a request for a position update isreceived, positions of all the buddies on Buddy Lists of which thatphone is a part will be transmitted as packets addressed to all thephones on all the Buddy Lists of which the requester is a part. Inalternative embodiments, the position updates will be sent for allmembers of all Buddy Lists of which the requesting phone is a part, butwill only be sent to the requesting phone to avoid excess networktraffic. In other alternative embodiments, the requesting phone candesignate a particular member of a particular Buddy List and request anupdate only for the position of the designated buddy. The positionupdate will be sent only to the requesting phone.

Follow Me Mode

In some applications such as construction sites with large constructioncrews and one supervisor, it is useful for everybody working on the jobto be able to find the supervisor but the supervisor does not care whereanybody else is. In embodiments with this capability, the supervisorturns on the Follow Me mode, typically making a menu selection. Thiscauses the supervisor's position to be reported to the Buddy Watchserver on a regular basis in packets that have information in theirheaders or elsewhere which indicate they are Follow Me packets and whichdesignates to which Buddy List this information is pertinent. The BuddyWatch server takes these position updates and packetizes them intopackets addressed to each of the phones on the designated Buddy List andsends those packets to the Buddy List phones. Position updates from thephones on the Buddy List are not sent to the supervisor phone or any ofthe other phones on the Buddy List.

This Follow Me mode can also be done in a blind code mode. This meansthat the supervisor does not need to list everyone on his buddy list.This is an “open channel” mode. Any “follower” who wants to track theposition of the supervisor only needs to list the supervisor's name andphone number on a buddy list of the “follower” phone. The supervisorenters a blind code in the Follow Me mode, and this code is published toall phones that have Buddy Watch software. This blind code entry andpublication allows any follower to enter the blind code in a buddy liston the follower phone and thereafter to receive the supervisor'sposition reports. This entry of the blind code will give any followerthe ability to receive position reports from the supervisor's phone, andthe supervisor will not have to approve each buddy individually. Thiscan be a great convenience since on some job sites, there may behundreds or thousands of workers. The follower phone sends a packet tothe Buddy Watch server telling it that the follower phone is in theFollow Me mode for the particular supervisor. This causes the BuddyWatch server to send position reports it receives from the supervisorphone to the follower phone, but the server does not send positionreports from the follower phone to the supervisor phone. The followerphone does not send position reports to the Buddy Watch server when inthe Follow Me mode. Disabling, removing or changing the blind code,stops Follow Me mode.

Buddies Only Mode

The Buddies only mode differs from the All On Follow Me mode and theBlind Code Buddies modes in that position reports are only received fromBuddies on a specifically named Buddy List with specifically namedBuddies. No blind code Buddies or Instant Buddy position reports can bereceived in this mode.

Waypoint Store Mode

This mode is useful for parents to monitor the travels of theirchildren. In this mode, the child's phone periodically reports thechild's position, and the parent can have the position reports sent tohis phone (or computer in some embodiments). In some embodiments,position alert data can be configured to send an alarm signal to aparent if a child's position gets too close to a specified location ortoo far from the home location or some other location.

Request Update

This mode allows a specific user to request an update on the position ofa specific Buddy. The requesting phone sends a request packet to theBuddy Watch server identifying itself and requesting a position updateon a specified Buddy. The Buddy phone need not do anything other than doits normal operation of sending position updates to the Buddy Watchserver. The update request causes the Buddy Watch server to provide atwo-way update so that the requesting phone's location is sent by theBuddy Watch server to the Buddy phone and the Buddy phone's location issent by the Buddy Watch server to the requesting phone. If the requesteris part of a group, then the Buddy phone's location is sent to allphones in the group.

Timed Update

In this mode, periodic updates from the phone of a person such as achild or other person being cared for can be periodically sent to a listof parental or other supervisor destinations such as the parent's cellphone or email address. The sender phone may also be configured to sendits location periodically to all others on a list. Updates on positioncan be every 15 minutes or some other configurable interval. Inaddition, each supervisorial user can request an update and the updateswill be sent to every phone on the supervisorial list. If a phone on thelist is not available, the update will indicate that no update isavailable, change the display to yellow and the status to unavailablebut keep displaying the last way point.

Personal Bread Crumbs

This is an emergency feature which allows tracking down children orelderly people who are no longer responding to inquiries sent to theirphone. This mode is useful for children who do not want to be watchedbut want a safety line to their friends and family in case somethinghappens. A user who wishes to use this feature sets up their profilesuch that the Buddy Watch server checks in with them via their BuddyWatch enabled phone on a daily basis to determine if all is OK. The usermust enter their secret code to confirm that all is OK. The phoneprompts them to enter this code, and a certain number of prompts can beignored before the system raises any alarms.

FIGS. 20A and 20B are a flowchart of one embodiment of the process ofenabling the personal bread crumbs mode and how it works. Step 200represents the process of enabling this mode. Typically, this is done bythe user in selecting a menu command, but in some embodiments, it may bepermanently configured to be on by the phone manufacturer. When thismode is enabled, the phone stores waypoints of the position of theholder of the phone periodically (step 202). The phone does not send thewaypoints to anybody, but it does send data or a message to the BuddyWatch server that the personal bread crumbs feature has been enabled(step 204), so the Buddy Watch server starts a timer (step 206). Thepurpose of starting this timer is to establish intervals at the end ofwhich an “Are you OK?” message will be sent to the phone which is inPersonal Bread Crumbs™ mode.

Step 208 represents the process of monitoring the timer for a timeoutevent. This may take the form of a hardware or software interrupt. Whena timeout occurs, the Buddy Watch server sends an inquiry to the phoneinquiring if the user is OK (step 210). The phone then displays the “Areyou OK?” message, and the user either enters his or her secret code tosay they are OK or does not. If the user does not respond, processingproceeds back to step 206 to start the timer again as the user maysimply be busy, have their phone off, be asleep, etc. However, after aconfigurable number of attempts to establish contact with no response,step 216 will conclude that the user may be in trouble and need rescue.In that case, processing is vectored by step 216 to step 218. In step218, the phone is commanded by the Buddy Watch server to send distressmessages out to predetermined phone numbers (five in the preferredembodiment) and/or email addresses. The voice mail message may indicateto check email for details. The email contains a content of a positionreport file that contains all the waypoints since the last OK wasreceived. If there are no stored waypoints, at least one set of storedwaypoints previously recorded are sent. The waypoints all providelatitude, longitude, date and time of recording.

The personal bread crumbs profile includes:

1) a list of emails to which messages should be sent;

2) a list of phone numbers to which the prerecorded voicemails are to besent;

3) frequency of OK confirmation the user needs to agree to (default isdaily at noon);

4) the text of an email to describe the emergency situation to readerswhich should include the mobile phone number, home phone number, workphone number, home address and other pertinent information; and

5) whether or not auto attachment of waypoints to emails is to becarried out.

In an alternative embodiment, step 218 represents the Buddy Watch serveritself sending out the distress messages. In some embodiments, thedistress messages are prerecorded voicemail messages which indicate theuser may be in trouble and giving instructions to the recipient how toretrieve the position reports from the Buddy Watch server. Step 218 alsorepresents the process of the phone sending its GPS position waypointsto the Buddy Watch server. In some embodiments, the prerecordedvoicemails are sent to pre-determined phone numbers and thepredetermined emails are sent to predetermined email addresses andinclude the GPS position reports in the text of the message. The emailmessages at least will include the personal breadcrumb position reports.These messages indicate to the recipients that there may be trouble andthat they should start looking for the person who owns the phone.

FIG. 21 is a flowchart of another embodiment of a process to establishand use personal bread crumbs mode. In step 201, the user enables thebread crumbs mode, and in step 203 the mobile phone contacts the BuddyWatch server (also called the Rubicon server herein) and informs it thatpersonal bread crumbs mode is on. GPS sample data is collected (205) andthe server is contacted to start the “Are you OK” timeout interval(207). Timeout causes the phone to display an “Are you OK” message(209). Steps 211 and 213 handle the situation where the user does notenter a secret code and retries. Step 215 represents the Rubicon serverresponse if the user does not respond to the “Are you OK” messageproperly and timely, said response involving sending whatever distressmessages are set up in the preferences file. GPS location samples andtimestamps are included in the distress messages (217) and the messagesare sent to the users listed in the preferences file (219).

Relational Database Compatibility

The Buddy Watch server is configured and programmed to be compatiblewith business applications where the customer may desire to findindividuals based upon their capabilities, certifications or theequipment they are carrying. By making the Buddy Watch fields of theBuddy Watch database available for search and/or integration into otherbusiness databases, a company such as a service based organization candetermine which individuals have the proper certification to work on aspecific problem and/or who have the appropriate tools and where thoseindividuals are located relative to a site to which the company wishesthem to be dispatched. The Buddy Watch server is programmed to provideinformation about the subscribers and their locations in a format whichis compatible with the other business database structures of customerswho are interested in having this data. Each position update received bythe Buddy Watch server then is exported and automatically updates thecustomer database. This can be done over the Internet or over adedicated local area or wide area network.

Radar Inclusion

The radar inclusion mode is a mode which allows police departments orfire departments or any other emergency response type organizations toinstantly expand their buddy lists to predetermined lists of allavailable personnel. This is useful when it is necessary to know thewhereabouts of persons to assist in an emergency situation or othersituation. This feature may be used by police or other groups where theformation of a group may vary throughout the day. This feature can beused in conjunction with standard groups. How this feature differs isthat a user does not need to be identified and only when the user comeswithin the “radar” range or radius does the user get included within theradar inclusion group.

City, County, State or Federal law enforcement or other agencies canoffer two capabilities with radar inclusion. The first capability is tosend an alert with a fixed target or to add a moving target to anyindividuals or groups without any input from the field officers. Thetarget could be a suspect on the move. The target affords all theofficers a better view of what is going on. The second capability allowsthe agency using the radar inclusion feature to “light up” the positionsof other individuals or groups of individuals on a Mapit display so thatone or more officers/firemen responding to an emergency can see thepositions of possible reinforcements relative to their position. This isuseful when groups that normally do not work together such as perhapsthe fire and police need to work together. Details about each Buddywhich is lit up on the Mapit display can be sent to any other Buddy inneed thereof by a command to the Buddy Watch server issued by thecontrolling personnel of the agency.

In the instant messaging protocol packets transmitted from a phone tothe Buddy Watch server, there is a field that can be left blank or aprefix can be put in. An agency using radar inclusion can put a code inthis field and then all Buddy Watch phones/PDAs operating in radarinclusion mode is sent these packets and retains the Buddy whoseinformation is in the packets in a group. This new group can be retainedfor a user programmable time up to 24 hours beyond the radar inclusionBuddy display disappearing.

The Buddy Watch server determines if a matching radar code is in rangeof a user and is not currently part of their active buddy list. If notthey are added if the radar inclusion mode is active.

Split Groups

When a member of a group specified by a Buddy in that group for Mapitdisplay is outside the radius set up in a Group Map Size configurationentry, then that member is split from the group and will not appear onthe map of the group. However, that member which has been split from thegroup will have an entry in a distinctive color such as dark green onthe list of active users in the group. Changing the Group Map Sizeconfiguration entry to a larger size may allow the split member to bedisplayed. If the location of the split member must be viewed but theGroup Map Size is not to be changed, clicking on the member of the groupwhich has been split from the Buddy List will cause the Mapit display tochange to the locale of the split member and display the member'slocation on the map so long as the split member's Buddy Watch status isactive.

Power Off or Disable Buddy Tracker

When the phone is turned off or the Buddy Tracker application isdisabled, a final transmission to the Buddy Watch server of the locationof the Buddy is made. The Buddy Watch server distributes this locationin packets addressed to all the members of the group of the Buddy whojust went to inactive status.

Targets

The Buddy Tracker software allows targets to be designated to specifymeeting points, sites of emergencies or service call locations. Lawenforcement agencies can use this feature to silently redirect personnelto the site of a crime or emergency without broadcasting the location onthe radio for persons using police scanners to hear. Each target canhave a user defined label associated with it and a message, photo(s) orother document(s) can be attached to the target. All the data definingthe target, any label associated therewith and any photos or otherdocuments is packetized in packets identifying the data therein astarget data or attachments to the target. These packets are received bythe Buddy Watch server and re-packetized addressed to all members of agroup or a radar inclusion group or specific Buddies.

A target can be specified by any member of a group or by a dispatcher ofa law-enforcement or other agency. Targets can be specified using a webbrowser. The target is a forward looking waypoint. This can be useful ifgroups are to meet at a predefined location and the first to arrive mayfind this is either not the right location or for some reason themeeting point should be changed. The target can be moved, and thenpackets containing the data of the new target location are sent by theBuddy Watch server to all members of the group with an alert messageindicating the target has moved. Targets can be moved simply by draggingand dropping the target to a new location on the display on the webbrowser which is logged into the Buddy Watch server and which hasinvoked the target specification command. Once the target has beeninitially set, moving it to a new location creates a waypoint history.Each target can have a description associated with it, and if the targethas been moved, the history can be viewed.

Out of Coverage Operation

When devices are out of cellular coverage, some limited operations arestill possible based on the device. For devices with a full GPSreceiver, the user can set targets or force waypoints that are stored.Each device may differ based on the amount of available memory.

If a Buddy takes his phone into areas of intermittent coverage, itoffers a means of some contact. Additionally, one may visit a site on arural road or other location out of coverage. Setting a target orforcing a waypoint from a phone or desktop computer which is not locatedat the target provides the location, but does not provide any idearegarding what is at the location. A picture phone at the location cancapture a picture of the location, and this picture be associated withthe target to give other Buddies in the group some idea of what toexpect when they get to a meeting point or target.

When a user wants to return to the site, the saved target can berecalled and sent to other Buddies in a group or individually designatedso a return trip can be planned. This provides the ability to return tospots not located on roads or at intersections such as pastoralsettings.

Local maps when out of coverage would not show up on the user's phonewhen the Mapit command is issued. This is because the map pixels aresent from the Buddy Watch server to the phone after being retrieved froma mapping server such as Yahoo maps. When the phone is out of coverage,the map pixel packets cannot reach the phone and it cannot render a map.However, if the phone has a GPS receiver, it can store the point theuser indicated he would like to capture, and, later when the phone isback in coverage, it can send the GPS location to the Buddy Watch serverin a Mapit command packet, and get the map pixels back from the BuddyWatch server along with any attachments.

Phones with limited memory will decrease the frequency of positionupdates so as to not exceed the memory capacity.

Attachments to Targets and Waypoints

Attachments such as photos can be appended to targets and waypoints evenwith travelling outside a coverage area. Once the phone is back incoverage, the attachment to a waypoint for example will be sent to theBuddy Watch server and can be distributed to other users. Documentscreated with phone apps or pictures captured by the phone's built incamera can be attached, and, if the phone has a USB port, picturescaptured by a digital camera or camcorder can be imported and attached.

Encryption of Data

The Buddy Watch software application is disabled and encrypted when itis downloaded to prevent other unauthorized users from installing andusing it. The Buddy Watch application program is decrypted and enabledwhen the access code is downloaded after a subscription is purchasedsince the decryption key is or is part of or is encoded into the accesscode.

Access Codes

Access codes to enable the Buddy Watch application are designed toincorporate the phone number or phone serial number as part of theencryption key so that the access code can only enable one phone. Largegroups with many phones, can ask for and receive access codes that allowoperation across a large number of phones.

Access codes are downloaded to the phone from the cell provider's serveror emailed to the user when the user provides their name, phone number,phone serial number and a form of payment. The application may bedownloaded to a MAC or PC, and then configured on the personal computerbefore being uploaded to the phone by a computer-to-phone USBconnection.

Targets

A member of a buddy group can market a target on a Mapit display, andthat target location can be shared to all the members of the group andshow up on their Mapit displays so they all know where to meet. Markingtargets is done using cursors on the Mapit display on the phone. Theuser then designates the buddy list to which the marked target is to bepublished. Packets are generated in the Buddy Watch application on thephone which include the GPS location, any name assigned to the targetand the identification of the buddy list to which the location is to bepublished. These packets are sent to the Buddy Watch server which thenextracts the data and packetizes it into packets addressed to all thephones on the designated buddy list. These packets are then sent to thebuddies on the list and the location of the target is extracted andposted on a Mapit display.

User Waypoints

The users can mark particular waypoints as they travel using the Mapitdisplays on their phones, and pictures or memos can be attached to thesewaypoints. In one embodiment, this is done by sending a packet with thelocation marked by the user to the Buddy Watch server and in that packetgiving an identifier or pointer that will be contained in other packetswhich record the memo or photo to be attached to the waypoint. The BuddyWatch server then extracts the data from these packets and stores theuser waypoint location with a pointer to the file in which the memo orphoto is stored.

SOS Support

Each user of Buddy Watch can define a profile of buddies to which an SOSalert is to be sent in the case of emergency. The SOS alert messageincludes location, time and phone number (caller ID) and a presetmessage for email or Instant Message service and a prerecorded voicemessage. This data is sent in packets addressed to the Buddy Watchserver when the user gives a command to send the SOS message. The BuddyWatch server then receives the SOS message, determines who it is from,retrieves the SOS profile stored on the server for that user andgenerates packets for email and IM and sends them on the internet andgenerates packets containing the digitized voice message and addressesthem to the phones listed in the SOS profile and sends those packets tothe cellular system central switching system 102 in FIG. 16 via internetgateway 148.

The SOS message protocol can be carried out by the Buddy Watch servereither on demand from the user, or automatically in conjunction with any911 call made from a phone which has a stored SOS profile. The SOSsupport configuration file contains data which defines which way thephone will act, and the buddies receiving the SOS messages will be awareof whether an 911 call was made or not. The buddies are actually in abetter condition to help the caller since they can see the caller'sposition on their Mapit displays, and they may be closer to the callerand be able to act quicker than the 911 support personnel.

The preferred embodiment causes the SOS messages to be sent when theuser dials **911**. A **411** dialed call will send the SOS messages toonly active buddies whose phones are registered in the system and onwith Buddy Watch activated.

The User Interface Genus

All species within the genus of user interfaces according to theteachings of the invention will display buddy lists and a list ofbuddies on each buddy list when that buddy list is selected. All specieswill display the specific information about a buddy when a particularbuddy is selected including at least their current location and the timeof the fix. All species will display a command or icon or menu choicethat can be invoked to allow a user to turn off location sharing. Allspecies will display commands, icons or menu choices to add, delete oredit buddy lists, or to add or delete or edit buddies.

Some species within this genus will also display one or more of thefollowing items of information about individual buddies: speed, lastcontact, altitude or direction. Some species within the genus willprovide icons, menu choices, etc. which a user can invoke to allow theuser to select a map display with the location of a buddy displayedthereon. Some species within the genus will allow a user to give acommand to request historical fixes which trace a path to the buddy'scurrent position. Some species within the genus will allow instant buddyrelationships to be set up to allow location sharing between a person introuble and a rescuer.

The Server Genus

All servers programmed with Buddy Watch software will have functionalityto:

1. either store map data for entire geographical areas that they serveor to obtain pertinent map data from another server such as a Mapquest™server and pick the appropriate maplet that surrounds the positions ofbuddies to be displayed and serve the maplet data to Buddy Watch enabledphones;2. pick the appropriate maplet for each buddy list or buddy based uponthe center of gravity of the buddy positions of the buddies within theselected buddy list and exclude buddies which are out of the coveragearea;3. render buddy locations on maplets based upon GPS location datagathered from Buddy Watch applications running on GPS enabled cellphones and PDAs;4. store user defined data that embodies each user's buddy lists andbuddies and configuration data;5. store at least some preference data that defines who can use theserver, e.g. only those with a valid Buddy Watch user ID and password);6. request and receive update and regularly scheduled GPS location datafrom users who have their Buddy Watch application turned on their phonesor PDAs and to distribute location data and maplets to the phones andPDAs of the buddies on buddy lists who have their Buddy Watch capabilityturned on; and7. turn Buddy Watch functionality on or off in terms of receivinglocation data from users who have indicated they want their Buddy Watchapplication turned off and turn off sharing location data of buddies whohave turned off their Buddy Watch application.

Various species within this genus: can calculate the center of gravityof the best fit for the maximum number of buddies that are within thecoverage of one maplet; determine the proper maplet size to send to theclient phone or PDA based upon configuration data which defines thescreen size of the device; send the same size maplet to all clients;allow each client to determine its own maplet size; send maplets withbuddies color coded to show who is out of bounds and who is in lostcontact status; implement a permissive buddy list wherein a personcannot be added to a buddy list until they consent; implement timedupdates for GPS position and scheduled cutoff times for positionsharing; store auxiliary information about each buddy such as phonenumbers, etc.; offer the functionality to allow each user to specify themaplet size they receive or specify a maximum maplet size for a buddylist; offer the functionality to request updates whenever a programmabledelta time or delta position difference over the last update occurs;offer a user preference to turn on or turn off GPS position updates; theability to cross communicate with other carrier's cellular systems tosend maplets to and receive location data from users on other systems;function to enable or disable the Buddy Watch application withoutdisabling location sharing with parental or supervisor units; storing asa preference or configuration data SOS emails and voicemail messageswhich can be sent out to email addresses and/or phone numbers specifiedin a configuration data file on demand or automatically when a 911 callis made.

The Client Application Genus

The client Buddy Watch application and phone or PDA platform genuscollectively provide the following functionality:

1. the programmed phone or PDA must be able to retrieve GPS positiondata directly or indirectly from a GPs receiver in the phone or PDA, andit should be able to wirelessly send the GPS position data to the BuddyWatch server either periodically or on demand from the server, but oneor another, it must be able to exchange position information data withthe server;2. the phone or PDA must have a display large enough to display mapletsand be able to download maplets from the Buddy Watch server;3. it must have Java or similar software to exchange digital data withthe Buddy Watch server using a wireless web application program;4. it must be able to communicate with the phone's applicationprogrammatic interface and any application programmatic interface of thecell phone service provider to:

be able to receive maplets from the Buddy Watch server with locationdata rendered thereon and display the maplets;

send location data and receive downstream messages and requests from theBuddy Watch server.

An important species with this genus will be able to request softwareneeded to execute commands given by the user from the Buddy Watchserver, receive a download of the software requested, install it intorandom access memory and execute it to carry out the requested command.In other species, the software Apparatus and Process are to simplifyPush to Talk walkie-talkie operations in cell phones.

FIG. 31 is a block diagram of the system for TalkControl to simplifycell phone walkie-talkie operations. Block 300 is a locationdetermination component which functions to determine user locations.This can be done in the cell phones or the Rubicon server and provides ageneric solution to extract location from GPS, J2ME location API orbespoke development for extracting Cell ID. If done on the server, theGMLC based solution us used. Block 300 also does distance calculations,location format conversion etc. LDG can expose a LIF based interface tolocation based services when applicable. This provides locationdetermination flexibility as needed.

SBC component 302 functions to do buddy group/list management, mappingtechniques, refresh based upon time or delta movement, geo coding,reverse geo coding, routing, etc.

CMC block 304 functions to provide local content to location basedservices. The content can be local maps or commercial/enterprisespecific content. Multiple parties like commercial content providers,government establishments or enterprises will provide the content. ThisCMC component will provide a common API to extract content from multipleproviders and provide the flexibility to choose any content providerbased upon parameters such as accuracy, availability of content, rates,whether the content is the latest, etc.

The SRC block 306 is a software rendering component which providesmultiple channel and device rendering, mobile application provisioning,service creation environment, OSS/BSS integration in both pre-paid andpost paid modes, usage analysis reports and SNMP based system managementsoftware.

GSC block 308 provides alert and notification systems, personalization,payment integration etc.

Individual services block 310 provides tools and generic components tobuild individual applications in consumer and enterprise domains.Consumer services like child tracking, buddy location, location basedadvertisements for target user groups can be built. Enterprise servicessuch as work force management, fleet tracking, emergency services, etc.can use the generic components.

FIG. 32 is a flow diagram of a process a user of a walkie-talkie enabledphone can initiate to join a talk group to enable subsequentwalkie-talkie operations. This process greatly simplifies the process ofsigning up for walkie-talkie operations of a wireless carrier. A userwho wishes to join a walkie-talkie talk group launches the TalkControlapplication, scrolls down to Join Group menu option, selects an EnterTokens option, fills in her name, phone number, project ID, and Tokenand presses send. One or more packets are sent to the Rubicon serverwhich authenticates the token and the recipient and creates a databaseentry. The Rubicon server then determines a time to add the user to thetalk group and contacts a server of the wireless carrier to add a user.The Rubicon server logs onto the Carrier Server and adds the user to theappropriate talk group and receives a confirmation. The confirmation issent to the user who initiated the process, and the Rubicon server logsout of the carrier server.

FIG. 33 is a flowchart of the process the Rubicon server carries out toautomatically delete a user. Users in talk groups can be deletedautomatically based upon a scheduled deletion time using this process.The Rubicon (X One) server compares the current date and time with adatabase for users scheduled to be deleted. If a user is to be deletedper schedule, the Rubicon server logs onto a carrier server and deletesthe user from the appropriate talk group and receives confirmation. TheRubicon server then deletes the user from the talk group in its databaseand logs out of the carrier server. The Rubicon server then sends thedeletion confirmation to the user phone.

FIG. 34 is a flowchart of the process the Rubicon server carries out toallow a supervisor to add a user. The supervisor launches theTalkControl application program and scrolls down to the add/edit/deleteuser menu option and logs in as a supervisor and presses send. Thesupervisor then selects User Name and selects Next to take him to theuser screen where the user's name, phone number, and project ID areentered. The supervisor then edits the start date, end date, hours, daysof the week for the active period when the user being added will be partof the talk group so that walkie-talkie service can only be had duringthe specified times. One or more packets are then generated addressed tothe Rubicon server and encapsulated in a cellular system packet andsent. These packets get routed to the Rubicon server which authenticatesthe initiator and recipient, creates a database entry for the user andcontacts the Carrier server and logs on. The Rubicon server then addsthe user to the appropriate talk group and receives confirmation. TheRubicon server then adds the user to the appropriate talk group andupdates its database and receives the confirmation. The confirmation issent to the supervisor who added the user and to the user phone whichwas added to the talk group.

FIG. 35 is a flowchart of the process for a supervisor to edit a user ina talk group. The supervisor launches the TalkControl application andscrolls down to add/edit/delete user and selects that option. Thesupervisor logs in as the supervisor and selects edit user and selects auser already in a talk group and edits data in fields for name, phonenumber, project ID of the user to be edited and presses next. Startdate, end date, hours, days of the week are then changed as desired.From that point, the process is the same as adding a new user.

FIG. 36 is a flowchart of a process for a supervisor to delete a userfrom a talk group. The supervisor launches TalkControl and scrolls downto add/edit/delete user and selects that. She logs in as a supervisorand scrolls down to delete a user and deletes data in name, phonenumber, project ID, start date, end date, hours and days of week fieldand presses send. One or more packets get routed to the Rubicon serverswhich authenticates the initiator and recipient. The Rubicon server thenlogs onto the Carrier server and deletes the user from the appropriatetalk group and receives a confirmation. The Rubicon server receives theconfirmation and updates its database to delete the user from a talkgroup. Confirmation is then sent from the Rubicon server to thesupervisor phone and the user's phone, and the Rubicon server then logsout of the carrier server.

FIG. 37 is a flowchart of a process for a supervisor to issue a token.The supervisor launches TalkControl and scrolls down to add/edit/deletea user. She logs in as a supervisor and scrolls down to issue token menuoption and selects it. She then scrolls down to select project to issuetoken menu option and presses next. The user selects token being issuedand presses issue. The supervisor then informs the user of the projectname and the token code. Packets are sent to the Rubicon server whichremoves the token from the list and replaces it with a new token. TheRubicon server then sends a message to the supervisor's phone to add themessage send new token to the supervisor's handset.

FIG. 38 is a flowchart for the process of setting up preferences. TheTalkControl application is launched on the handset and the user scrollsdown to the add/edit/delete user option and presses select. The userlogs in and presses send. The user then scrolls down to preferences andpresses next. The user then selects the preference feature to be updatedand presses select. This vectors processing to one of the fourillustrated lines of processing to set the methods of notification asaudio, vibrate or select auto login or set the new password or set a newID. Processing then loops back to allow another preference to beselected and edited.

FIG. 39 is a flowchart for the process to allow a supervisor to requeststatus. The supervisor launches TalkControl and scrolls down to viewstatus. She logs in as a supervisor and presses send and then selects auser. The supervisor then scrolls and selects project to view status andpresses next and scrolls down to select the project and the user andviews the user's details.

FIG. 40 is a process flowchart of the process for a supervisor to createa group. The supervisor launches TalkControl application and scrollsdown to create a group and presses select. She then logs in assupervisor and presses send and enters group name. A talk group is thenautomatically created. The supervisor sets the duration of the group,its start date, end date, days, hours and presses next. One or morepackets addressed to the Rubicon server are then created and sent to theRubicon server. The Rubicon server then authenticates the initiator andrecipient and creates a database entry for a new group. The Rubiconserver then contacts the carrier server and logs in and creates a talkgroup in the carrier server and receives a confirmation. The Rubiconserver then adds the group to the appropriate talk group and receivesconfirmation. The confirmation is then sent from the Rubicon server tothe supervisor and the Rubicon server logs out of the carrier server.The supervisor phone then receives a message on the wireless devicedisplaying the group added profile updated request screen.

Although the invention has been disclosed in terms of the preferred andalternative embodiments disclosed herein, those skilled in the art willappreciate possible alternative embodiments and other modifications tothe teachings disclosed herein which do not depart from the spirit andscope of the invention. All such alternative embodiments and othermodifications are intended to be included within the scope of the claimsappended hereto.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method performed byone or more data processing apparatuses, the method comprising:detecting formation of a location-sharing group between two or moremobile devices, wherein the formation of the location-sharing group isdependent on receipt of a request to form the location-sharing groupfrom a first one of the two or more mobile devices, and a specificationfrom a user of the first one of the two or more mobile devices whichselects each additional mobile device of the two or more mobile deviceswhich is to participate in the location-sharing group from a subscriberlist; identifying a geographic area corresponding to an outline whichencompasses the current geographic locations of two or more mobiledevices in the location-sharing group; tracking changes in thegeographic area dependent on changes in the outline, by receiving globalpositioning system (GPS) coordinates from the respective two or moremobile devices in the location-sharing group, processing said GPScoordinates to identify the current geographic locations of therespective two or more mobile devices in the location-sharing group, andreshaping the outline in a manner that corresponds to changesrepresented by the received GPS coordinates; and periodically updating amap to correspond to the tracked changes in the geographic area, andtransmitting the updated map via a wide area network (WAN) to each ofthe two or more mobile devices in the location-sharing group, forelectronic display thereon as a moving map which depicts location ofeach of the two or more mobile devices in the location-sharing group. 2.The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein detecting formationof the location-sharing group further comprises: subsequent to theinvitation request, receiving from each selected additional mobiledevice a respective consent to join the location-sharing group.
 3. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein periodically updatingthe map comprises retrieving an updated map from a third party mapserver, each updated map re-centered in dependence on changes in theoutline.
 4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, furthercomprising: detecting that a target location coincides with thegeographic area; and providing a notification to at least one of the twoor more devices responsive to detecting that the target locationcoincides with the geographic area; wherein providing the notificationcomprises transmitting the notification via a cellular network.
 5. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein saidcomputer-implemented method comprises receiving the GPS coordinates viaa wide area network using a packet-based transmission scheme, said GPScoordinates being encrypted, and wherein said computer-implementedmethod further comprises extracting a payload from packets of saidpacket-based transmission scheme and decrypting said payload to recoverthe GPS coordinates.
 6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1,wherein said computer-implemented method further comprises superimposingat least one text field entered by a user of one of the two or moremobile devices in the location-sharing group on the moving map.
 7. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein saidcomputer-implemented method further comprises, if a particular mobiledevice in the location-sharing group is out of network coverage,identifying current geographic location of the particular mobile deviceas a last-known position of the particular mobile device, dependent onprevious GPS coordinates received for the particular mobile device. 8.The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein saidcomputer-implemented method further comprises receiving from a user ofone of the mobile devices a photo, and associating the photo with ageolocation identified on the updated map, and wherein said periodicallyupdating comprises causing each mobile device in the location-sharinggroup to display the moving map in a manner where the photo issuperimposed on the updated, moving map at a location corresponding tothe geolocation.
 9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, whereinperiodically updating the map comprises marking the outline on the map.10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein each of themobile devices is a cellular phone, and wherein transmitting the updatedmap comprises transmitting each the updated map in packet-based formusing a transmission control protocol to each of the mobile devices viaa cellular network.
 11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1,wherein the moving map is an interactive map, configured to permit eachuser of a respective one of the two or more mobile devices in thelocation-sharing group to selectively zoom the map in and out, asdisplayed on the respective one of the two or more mobile devices in thelocation sharing group.
 12. A system, comprising: one or moreprocessors; and memory having instructions stored thereon, theinstructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause theprocessors to perform operations comprising detecting formation of alocation-sharing group between two or more mobile devices, wherein theformation of the location-sharing group is dependent on receipt of arequest to form the location-sharing group from a first one of the twoor more mobile devices, and a specification from a user of the first oneof the two or more mobile devices which selects each additional mobiledevice of the two or more mobile devices which is to participate in thelocation-sharing group from a subscriber list, identifying a geographicarea corresponding to an outline which encompasses the currentgeographic locations of two or more mobile devices in thelocation-sharing group, tracking changes in the geographic areadependent on changes in the outline, by receiving global positioningsystem (GPS) coordinates from the respective two or more mobile devicesin the location-sharing group, and processing said GPS coordinates toidentify the current geographic locations of the respective two or moremobile devices in the location-sharing group, and reshaping the outlinein a manner that corresponds to changes represented by the received GPScoordinates, and periodically updating a map to correspond to thetracked changes in the geographic area, and transmitting the updated mapvia a wide area network (WAN) to each of the two or more mobile devicesin the location-sharing group, for electronic display thereon as amoving map which depicts location of each of the two or more mobiledevices in the location-sharing group.
 13. The system of claim 12,wherein said instructions, when executed, are to cause the one or moreprocessors to perform operations comprising: determining that a targetlocation coincides with the geographic area; and notifying at least onemobile device in the location sharing group responsive to determiningthat the target location coincides with the geographic area.
 14. Thesystem of claim 12, wherein said instructions, when executed, are tocause the one or more processors to: receive from each selectedadditional mobile device, subsequent to receipt of the group initiationrequest, a respective consent to join the location-sharing group. 15.The system of claim 12, wherein said instructions, when executed, are tocause the one or more processors to retrieve an updated map from a thirdparty map server, each updated map being re-centered in dependence onchanges in the outline.
 16. The system of claim 12, wherein saidinstructions, when executed, are to cause the one or more processors toreceive the GPS coordinates via a wide area network using a packet-basedtransmission scheme, said GPS coordinates being encrypted, and toextract a payload from packets of said packet-based transmission schemeand to decrypt said payload to recover the GPS coordinates.
 17. Thesystem of claim 12, wherein said instructions, when executed, are tocause the one or more processors to superimpose at least one text fieldentered by a user of one of the two or more mobile devices in thelocation-sharing group identified on each updated map.
 18. The system ofclaim 12, wherein said instructions, when executed, are to cause the oneor more processors to, if a particular mobile device in thelocation-sharing group is out of network coverage, identify currentgeographic location of the particular mobile device as a last-knownposition of the particular mobile device, dependent on previous GPScoordinates received for the particular mobile device.
 19. The system ofclaim 12, wherein said instructions, when executed, are to cause the oneor more processors to: receive from a user of one of the mobile devicesa photo to be associated with a geolocation identified on the movingmap; and cause each mobile device in the location-sharing group todisplay the moving map in a manner where the photo is superimposed onthe moving map at a location corresponding to the geolocation.
 20. Thesystem of claim 12, wherein the moving map is an interactive map,configured to permit each user of a respective one of the two or moremobile devices in the location-sharing group to selectively zoom the mapin and out, as displayed on the respective one of the two or more mobiledevices in the location sharing group.